As long as reviewers don’t use the phrase “a return to form for Ubisoft,” then maybe things will be okay.

@themightyant glances at Veilguard after EA touted “engagements” instead of “sales”, then glances at all the writers and such from said game having been almost instantly laid off

Translation: “please subscribe so we can boast of engagement numbers instead of sales numbers like they did for Veilguard if/when this sells like…well, Veilguard!”

@LogicStrikesAgain You forgot the XBox U!

Trust me, my Xbox friends, you don’t want this game. You really don’t.

I got the disc for $5 a few months ago and…I just can’t make myself even put it in my console.

That is definitely a fugly console, but I have to admit that I’d enjoy having it in my tv stand!

Yeah, got the message from MS last night.

Oh, well. I already owned it quite genuinely on disc for PS5 and digitally due to the code my physical PS5 copy of AW2 came with. I’ll survive having the Xbox digital copy vanish into the ether.

Kinda reminds me of the few times this sort of thing happened on Sony’s side. I still have access to the glitched-free games they had, like a couple of digital PSP games as well as the God of War 1&2 PS3 remasters.

Sony never revoked access to those. Guess MS is more of a stickler, or Remedy kicked up that much of a fuss since they just barely made a profit on AW2 and need the cash from actual sales!

The best thing that could happen for the AC IP is for another company to take the reigns and divorce it from ALL of the current management.

Shadows is (whether you agree with the reasons or not) so tainted in many folks’ eyes that even if it breaks even (which it may not, given delays and Ubisoft continually Ubisofting) it won’t do much for the compaly’s bottom line at this point.

@JetmanUK True, I guess they want to focus on polishing the PS5 version without having to make allowances for PS4 and PS4 Pro, perhaps.

Might make it easier when Horizon 6 comes, since I’d wager that’ll drop support for last-gen.

@JetmanUK Forza Horizon 5 is PS5 only.

I bought my first Xbox last year, a series X.

I have zero plans to buy another XBox after this. Partially because I’m a PS/Nintendo gamer first and foremost, partially because I got the Series X to play some previous exclusives for the first time ever…and now that MS has apparently given up on those, I have zero reason to buy MS hardware again.

I also REALLY dislike Smart Delivery. Like, really dislike it.

@JON22 You mean the console that requires you to download a platform-specific version of the game to play it, even if you wanted to play the XBone version contained on the disc? That console that, if those servers ever go away, will suddenly have far fewer games playable on it since the smart delivery copy will be inaccessible?

Okay.

It’s good to see Control getting some more love retroactively.

@Kaloudz Again, YOU see no connection. Neither did Ubisoft.

Japanese folks? Oh, a good number of them saw the connection, whether unintentional or not. I’m 100% sure it was unintentional, but dang Ubisoft seems to keep doing it.

But what you or I think is utterly meaningless. We (at least, I, can’t speak for you) aren’t Japanese and we aren’t qualified to speak towards what Japanese people are allowed to find objectionable or acceptable, as it is a completely different culture.

It amuses me when people like us think we can dictate what other cultures should accept or decry. The fact is that the offense is there.

@Kaloudz I think it’s the whole “Japan is the only country that has been nuked and the partially destroyed Torii gate is currently a symbol related to that devastation” thing that is the point.

Literally no one is saying that there’s never been a partially destroyed one of these. But CURRENTLY it’s kind of a thing that has more meaning after…you know…

In a few months, Forza Horizon 5 needs to be removed from this list.

@themightyant Won’t know till the game comes out. I said “a number” which is obviously more than zero.

I wouldn’t underestimate the “noisy malcontents” though. Lately they have a history of being pretty spot-on as far as game success. glances at Veilguard

@Kaloudz And that’s the thing. You found it stupid. Other gamers found it hilarious, others found it insulting, including a number of Japanese gamers.

Funny thing about viewpoints. There’s more than one!

I’m betting it will sell, but it won’t be a major success. All the controversy and missteps Ubisoft made, plus pissed off Japanese fans…that’s not a great combo.

But there are die-hard AC fans out there who don’t care and just want another AC game, and that’s okay too.

It’ll be interesting if Ubisoft touts sales numbers or “engagement” numbers like EA did for Veilguard.

“fans are getting restless”

Wait, there are enough Starfield fans to be restless about this game?

Every time I hear about this guy and his opinions, I realize how lucky we are that he hasn’t touched the God of War series since GoW 2 back in the day.

Having never played any of the series except a tiny bit of the remastered original, I genuinely don’t care about multiplayer at all. I want to do the story when it finally comes time for me to clean these off my backlog.

Worth it. I got the regular game for cheaper last year, but this price is still worth it.

@xboxjapanfan Could always, you know, just buy them…

Thankfully all the Yakuza/Like a Dragon games got physical releases on PS4/5 (and Dead Souks on PS3!) and are on my shelf, even Man Who Erased His Name which I had to import. But by gum, they’re mine.

@themightyant I WANTED to pick it up for PS5, but the odd cutscene bug just made me avoid it. It’s too bad, PS5 is where I’d rather play it but the devs have said that bug will never be fixed.

A note on a couple of games here.

Veilguard is one of this month’s PS Plus Essential games, so if you have both Xbox and PS5…snag it there rather than paying even that sale price. If you really have to play it, which I wouldn’t advise, but still!

Second, that $19.79 price for Robocop ain’t great. I got it for cheaper than that on XBox a month or two ago, and it was also like $8.99 on PS5 last week. Hold off, be strong, it’ll drop more!

@Medic_alert I can’t blame them for it. I can DESPISE them for it, but can’t blame them.

Oh, well. Clearly MS doesn’t want more of my money, and I’m happy to go along with their wishes!

@Medic_alert Which is guaranteed to make my first Xbox (series X) my last Xbox.

@Ricky-Spanish It was $4.99 last year. $9.99 is too much.

@dreadful And yet Rocksteady (the studio that made said SS game) escaped unscathed.

Kinda makes you wonder what kind of traumatic brain injury the people in charge at WB have, doesn’t it?

@Cakefish I mean, it COULD happen, but I’m absolutely assuming 2026 unless it ends up being a Switch 2 launch title somehow!

Now it’s a race between this game and Metroid Prime 4 as to which will release first.

@ValentineMeikin FF14 and Warframe also run on the base PS4, so automatically the requirements are lower.

@Trmn8r Never underestimate the ability of IGN to achieve ever higher levels of cringe.

Pretty sure it isn’t a need for new hardware, it’s that MS is making no compelling argument to buy THEIRS now.

Note that Sony’s dropped the least. People wanting a Switch know that the Switch 2 is on the way, and MS has done very little to push the XBox hardware.

Still happy I snagged a series X last year. But with Forza Horizon 5 coming to PS5…

@TheBeardiest I have P5 for PS4, and P5R for PS4, PS5, Switch and XBox.

Don’t ask me about every other physical release for PS4/XBox/3DS/Switch for the other games, because I only have so much free time in my day.

@TheBeardiest I’m not alone!

I do the same for Persona games as well, because I’m an idiot.

RGG Studio is one of the few out there that delivers consistently entertaining games these days.

My PS5 copy will be waiting for me on Friday, and will also pick it up for XBox on disc down the road, as I like supporting these folks.

Visited a friend who had the OG XBox back in the day and he showed me a few games. I wasn’t overwhelmingly impressed, and happily continued being a PS and Nintendo guy.

April of last year, I decided to get a series X and check out the Halo series and a few others, along with some BC improved games. Probably would have sold the console after that, but I discovered Forza Horizon 4 and 5, and that got me to stay.

Of course, now that 5 (and likely 6) are coming to PS…well, I’ll still keep my series X. I picked up a decent library of games for it, though my PS consoles will always have pride of place!

After seeing the universally glowing reviews for Veilguard…I don’t believe any of these critics anymore.

I’ll wait for some folks I trust more to give me their verdict down the road.

As far as I’m concerned, the only miss they’ve had is not porting Dead Souls to current consoles, plus the other Ishin!-style game from years back. All their games have been excellent.

I don’t even want a new game. I want a remaster of Arkham Origins. I don’t trust current!Rocksteady to make a good new game anymore.

(Yes, I know if one has the 360 disc one can play it via BC, but I do not have said disc.)

@Kilamanjaro The physical Swirch and PS4 copies are getting some serious discounts lately, and both my copies are opened JUST so I don’t get tempted to resell them down the road.

Yes, Veilguard failed because of the lack of live service. It wasn’t the bugs, the bad writing, the virtue signaling, the dialog options bearing no resemblance to what your character actually says, or anything like that.

Nope. It was that darn missing live service. Never mind that EA’s football/soccer game was also a failure, and that was its usual connected and looty self.

Too bad this (to my knowledge) isn’t getting a physical release for XBox.

I’ll live with my Switch and PS4 physical copies, but I’m glad more folks will get to play these!

@FatGuyInLilCoat Luxury. I go twice a DAY and have to show the therapist where on my Robot White controller MS touched me.

@IOI Every platform becomes unsupported eventually. If MS stopped making new consoles tomorrow, how does that devalue your current game library? Plus, digital purchases are just indefinite rentals anyway, they aren’t forever.

Besides, Sony doesn’t make PS3 or Vita consoles anymore, yet I can still download my purchased games for them, even though they’re indefinite rentals for essentially dead platforms.

Also, that’s awesome about cross play, thanks for that info! Cross-save would be AMAZING.

I bought my first Xbox, a series X last year so I could play some of the exclusives I’d missed out on in the past. Halo, Gears of War, etc, then I’d sell the console, satisfied I’d tried them out.

I’m not a driving game fan. At all. So out of curiosity I fired up Horizon 4 on gamepass expecting to play for ten minutes and then delete.

Nearly a year later, I have bought Forza Horizon 2 and 3 on disc, and the ultimate editions of 4 and 5 digitally with no plans to sell the series X.

That said? I will also get Horizon 5 on PS5, possibly even the ultimate edition, and it will also be my preferred platform for Horizon 6 whenever that comes out. I HOPE for day one on there, but I’ll happily play it on gamepass or just buy it outright on X as well as PS5 if it isn’t. Hell, I might buy it for both platforms anyway, just because I’ve enjoyed the series so much. Put your money where your mouth is, right?

Maybe MS will implement cross-play for the Horizon series future releases so XBox and PS5 owners can enjoy the playground together!

@Rog-X I too like to pay to play buggy things sooner.

Oh, no, wait I don’t.

1.5 million engaged could mean a lot of things.

It could mean total sales, but that’s really doubtful. It could mean sales-before-refunding for folks who got it on Steam, tried it and hated it and got their money back. It could include people who played it via GeForce Now for free.

Words matter. If this was actual games sold where they got some appreciable money back, they’d actually say SOLD, not engaged.